August 12, 2004
Cable Run II
Part of the rebuild of the Call Center involved removing a section of hallway and adding that area to the open office, which allowed two more cubicles to be placed. In a spot that never had cables -- so I have to run new communications cables.
I pull the floor tile and look around under the floor -- as expected, no loose cable ends. The terminal room is close, just the other side of the wall and down a ways.
I pull a tile along the backboard and find a cable hole; remove the firestopping and place my flashlight to shine into the underfloor space of the open office on the other side of the wall. Return to the hole, look under the floor, and I see the light!
For reaching under floors and over ceilings I have a collaspible measuring pole, refered to as a lay-up-stick. I extend it under the floor toward the light. Further, further, the pole is sagging as I near the opening, a lift/bounce/push and I place the end of the stick into the hole in the wall going into the terminal room. A measured 22 feet, saving me from lifting the carpet and unscrewing and lifting 11 floor tiles.
Return to the terminal room and the end of the stick is clearly visible in the hole. Reach in, bend and pull the end into the room. Tape on the connector end of a 25-pair telephone cable. Push back into the underfloor space. To the 25-pair cable I tape on four cat-5 four-pair cables. Call for backup, Doug Wingo comes to help on the actual pull. As Doug shortens the lay-up stick, pulling the cables into the office area, I am in the terminal room pulling slack out of the boxes of 4-pair cat-5's and keeping the 25-pair cable from twisting and kinking. As these are all stiff plenum cables they need constant foot by foot attention. A few minutes later Doug stops pulling. He coils up the slack at the office end and I lay the cables out in the terminal room, the 25 pair to the backboard and the cat-5's to the patch panel; and replace the fire-stopping.